Vigilantes in Iceland

Are the ancient ways coming back? Read Katharina Hauptmann's article on World Voices here.

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Nick Drew: Could our lights go out?

Read the first of Nick's superb new series on threats to our energy supply here.

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Carbon Balls: don't pick on us for CO2 targets!

See the Energy Page for why the UK shouldn't lead the way in CO2 emissions reduction.

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Road rules in Russia

See James Higham's orthodox guide on World Voices here.

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Strawberries in Greenland: the global warming debate hots up

Read about it on World Voices here.

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On positive thinking

"The Last Ditch" has posted an excellent piece on the vital role of aspiration, and parental expectation. I comment:

Excellent article.

Can I suggest that socialism is not the only stifler of initiative? The bankers' economy we now have has buried the populace under debt, and at the same time bought the political class so that they have permitted large-scale economic immigration to keep down wage rates, sustain unemployment among the indigenous population and maintain profits for the owners of large businesses. So it becomes easier for negative thinking among the poor to justify itself. Positive thinking is great, as long as you still have a chance; fewer now have that chance.

The "boom" of the last 30 years or so (with occasional pauses) has been a binge that, while enriching a minority, has left most without the realistic prospect of independence in this country. The "crony capitalism" in the UK and USA is in danger of laying the foundation of socialist regimes in both countries.

Chapman Pincher should update his book "Their Trade Is Treason" to include members of our current plutarchy.

A propos: see A K Haart's insightful piece on social control as a form of business enterprise that like other businesses, seeks to expand endlessly; and The Economic Collapse blog on debt as a form of social control, the crippling personal cost of even moderate debt.

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Spanish corruption scandal - the local take

See World Voices here.

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Storm clouds over Sark

Controversy rages in one of Britain's smallest islands - see World Voices.

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Soothing advice for mollusc-loving dyslexics

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Screaming kids: a treat for parents and teachers

From here (htp: my beloved sister-in law)

Nick Drew's Lenten message to DECC: "Lay off the boozle!"

See our expert's full story about the DECC's dodgy consumer energy price accounting here.

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Sweeney Todd: an apology

Following investigation by the FSA, Fleet Street hairstylist Sweeney Todd has been forced to apologise for the use of horsemeat in his partner's popular pies. "We have been experiencing problems with our usual supplier," explained Mr Todd, 53, "so we have had to use protein filler from processors in Eastern Europe.

"Since our orphan boy tout fell ill, business in the barber's shop has been very slow, what with the credit crunch and the fact that thanks to our catering arm, we have no regular hairdressing customers.

"We have now returned to using 100% human flesh in our products. We can reassure consumers that the presence of animal tranquillisers in the pies has been traced to their recreational use by our late clientele. The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they will not prosecute anyone for pie-related secondary intoxication."

Related news: the Health Secretary Mr Jeremy Hunt has announced that elderly people requiring long-term care will be given the choice of paying £75,000 towards nursing home fees, or a free visit to Mr Todd's salon.

Mr Hunt has asked us to point out that despite the name, there is no connection between his educational firm Hotcourses and the hot savoury dishes manufactured by Mr Todd and Mrs Lovett.

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Chinaaaarrgghh!!!

As the Year of the Snake approaches, read about Mark in China on World Voices.

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Slow down in Spain

See Brett Hetherington on World Voices.

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Here's looking at you

See World Voices...

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Cigarette packaging row: Art entry # 2

Continuing the series on redundant, nannyish consumer advice.

Drink: here.

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Freedom is created by limitation

Seen via "Tom Paine", a discussion piece by Professor Sandy Ikeda on what a free society would look like.

I comment:

Why should we want a free society?

Do people mean by that merely, a society in which my own freedom is maximised? In which case, this has always been achieved - by powerful individuals.

Maybe a better way to approach the problem is to establish limits on the wealth, power and ability to manage public information and communication of those who most want dominance. Perhaps the key to freedom is restriction.

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Technology, faux defence and oppression

(Why are the architects of our future Hell so fond of crap rock music accompaniment?)

The Mail on Sunday revels in a whizzy new gadget:

... and then tries to reassure us:

While Black Hornet is a priceless tool in Afghanistan, it is unlikely it could be used on Britain’s streets because of civil liberty concerns.

"Unlikely"...

As Shakespeare's murderous Scottish usurper says:

 ... But in these cases
We still have judgement here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught return
To plague the inventor.

The West has a history of using poor people in faraway places to refine the weapons they intend to use in their main agenda, even though it should ultimately come back on themselves:

Ethiopia, Guernica, Poland, London, Berlin.

Now we have cybersurveillance and Hellfire missiles, purportedly to protect us (the wholly good) from Puritans of a different religion (the wholly evil):

Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, ...your home.

Perhaps the first use will be against a terrorist cell in a remote Northern counties farmhouse; or kidnappers holed up in a tower block; or drug dealers on the Broadwater Farm Estate.

Even without our having to postulate malice, the logic of power is that it must be exercised, and (often incompetently) abused. Look at how our police have employed guns, CS gas, pepper spray, tasers.

But worst of all, civil governance has now entered the Information Age, as Orwell so presciently predicted. Already (I suspect) GCHQ is roboscanning everything you email, phone, Twitter or Facebook;  maybe also the titles of the books you borrow from the library, the programmes you stream onto your laptop or smart TV, your medical records, your movements as reported by your cellphone. If they don't, they could. If they can, they will, one day.

Fifty years after the first publication of "The Making of the English Working Class", E.P. Thompson should be here to write the sequel: The Breaking of the English Working Class. The poor were thrown off the land and into factories and slums, thus snapping not only their rural bondage but the bonds of obligation that also tied their social superiors. Noblesse oblige - but not richesse.

After generations of hard work and struggle there was a brief flowering of post-WWII prosperity and playful liberty. That is coming to an end here - though perhaps it is springing up in the New World of the East.

Now we have millions who are to be managed like useless and potentially destructive pets, and whenever they - or incoming competitors - look as though they may rise, a fresh wave of immigrants is employed to push them down another level.

And, like the micromanaging computers needed to keep the aerodynamically unstable F16 in flight, all this wonderful spying and coercive technology will someday be so useful in maintaining an otherwise totally insupportable social order.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Simon Beck's Snow Art

 

Doing the rounds via email, the intricate temporary-art snowfield images created by Simon Beck. His Facebook page and photo gallery here. 

 

Simon is an English cartographer (educated: Millfield and Oxford) who stays in France during the ski season, but is thinking about continuing his work in Norway.

 

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Nick Drew: abandoning nuclear could kill hundreds in Germany

See the fourth and final part of the Denmark/Germany energy series here.

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